Excitable and Exasperated

January 11, 2012

Review of the Fifth Doctor’s era

1982 – 1984
Castrovalva Four to Doomsday Kinda The Visitation Black Orchid Earthshock Time-Flight	Arc of Infinity Snakedance Mawdryn Undead Terminus Enlightenment The King’s Demons The Five Doctors (Special)	Warriors of the Deep The Awakening Frontios Resurrection of the Daleks Planet of Fire The Caves of Androzani

There’s a lot about Five that feels eminently Doctor-y to me. It could be that Ten is “my” Doctor, and Five was Tennant’s, so a lot of mannerisms and such carried over. But the way Five gets so excited about possible solutions to the problems he faces – almost frenetic at times – is very much part of what I consider “the Doctor.” He’s quick-witted yet fallible, and has great love for his Companions even as he gets irritated with them on a regular basis.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in his relationship with Tegan, one of the longest-running Companions. They constantly snark at each other, yet in threatening circumstances each strives to protect the other. When his off-kilter regeneration threatens his well-being, Tegan takes charge, keeping control of the situation with an “excuse me – I’m responsible for the Doctor!” Conversely, he often tries to bolster her courage with a “brave heart, Tegan!”

As for that regeneration, it’s the first one that seems to go a bit wrong (later Six, Eight and Ten all have problems settling into their new bodies). It makes not only for a good story hook for Castrovalva, but also for some fun impressions, as Five re-inhabits his former personae in turn (I particularly like that he gets to say “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow” and “when I say ‘run,’ run!”). Add a stalk of celery, though, and he’s right as rain…

I don’t know what it is about Five that I find so relatable yet simultaneously impossible to describe. Clearly, he’s the Doctor, so he’s fabulous in his own way. For example, when he’s told he shouldn’t get into a duel with someone because “he is said to be the best swordsman in France!” he merely responds with a cool, “well, fortunately, we are in England” (four years before The Princess Bride).

On the other hand, he comes across as a regular bloke in many ways. He discovers he’s quite good at cricket (in accordance with his costume, and future-reminiscent of Eleven’s football (soccer) skillz in The Lodger), winning the game for his adopted team. He has a tendency to flip a coin and then go counter to its dictates. And he seems to have no qualms about emptying a clip into a Dalek. Most importantly, his ridiculously long death (a slow one that spans four episodes) is arguably the most noble, and the best regeneration to date.

Five started his tenure with three Companions, and two others transitioned in and out in the middle. As the last Companions said farewell, he also picked up one who was primarily Six’s. Here they are in order, with the stories in which they first and last appeared and how they left the Doctor:

Adric
Four’s era to Earthshock
Died
Nyssa of Traken
Four’s era to Terminus
Stayed behind to help rebuild Terminus
Tegan Jovanka
Four’s era to Resurrection of the Daleks
Stayed behind in 1984 London
Vislor Turlough
Mawdryn Undead to Planet of Fire
Returned with colonists to his home planet
Kamelion (an android)
The King’s Demons to Planet of Fire
Asked to be destroyed
Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Planet of Fire into Six’s era

It’s notable that Adric (much-maligned by fans though he might have been) is the first full-on Companion (and here I’m talking about one who actually traveled in the TARDIS for more than a single story arc, unlike Katarina) to part company from the Doctor by dying. Whatever you think of Adric himself, you have to admit that it took balls for the production team actually to kill him off. Of course, then they pulled an RTD by getting rid of Tegan without really getting rid of her (she gets left behind in Time-Flight only to rejoin the Doctor and Nyssa in the very next story, Arc of Infinity).

This is also when the writers really started to take shortcuts with explanatory dialog, eliminating a great deal of technobabble. Perhaps it was an attempt not to have such shoddy science, or perhaps it was a cop-out so they didn’t have to devise something that sounded like it might make sense. Regardless, here’s where the Doctor’s tendency to tell people that he’ll “explain later” really comes into its own. Even his Companions get into the act, telling random characters that “the Doctor will explain later.”

We also get more on some of the Doctor’s unusual physiology, learning in Four to Doomsday that he can withstand the absolute cold of space unprotected for 6 minutes and that he can self-induce a trance (which we already knew) to reduce his need for oxygen (which is new). It’s also reiterated in Mawdryn Undead that Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times. Further, it’s implied that sacrificing regenerations would not necessarily kill a Time Lord, but it would make him no longer a “Time Lord” – resurrecting the perennial question of whether “Time Lord” is a species or a “race” of Gallifreyans.

During this period, the show celebrated its 20th anniversary. The resulting special (The Five Doctors) is among my favorites (cuz really – who doesn’t love a good multi-Doctor story?) One of the best parts is that – rather surprisingly, for a Doctor who encountered him more than anyone but Three – the bad guy wasn’t the Master (who, it has to be said, is a not-so-Master of disguise; his voice always gives him away, if you know what to listen for). Mostly, it’s great to see all the Regenerations back in action. We can only hope 2013 will give us something so fun.

Summary
Five’s era was essentially an extension of the Golden Age, but it wasn’t without its ups and downs. In fact, reportedly it was the less than stellar quality of the scripts that prompted Davison to tender his resignation (something he apparently regretted later, but too late, as Colin Baker’s contract had already been signed). Personally, I find very few true stinkers here, but maybe that’s just because the show seems to have reached the comfortable rut of late-middle age. The next era would be anything but tranquil.